Pervert appears in court after he hid iPhone in box to film girl in shower

A PERVERT spied on a teenage girl as she showered at her Weymouth home, a court has heard.

Timothy Yarnold, who turned up to his trial wearing a mask, placed his iPhone inside a box with a peephole cut out in order to watch the young woman, but restored the phone’s factory settings before police officers arrived, wiping the data.

Yesterday (FRI) the 22-year-old was found guilty of two counts of voyeurism and two of possessing indecent images of a child following a week-long trial.

Bizarrely, he had arrived at Bournemouth Crown Court each day wearing a white mask over his face, which he was ordered to remove by security guards before going inside. He was also seen carrying a placard saying ‘Never question authority.’ During his summing up, Judge Peter Johnson said Yarnold, of Grantley Gardens, Plymouth, signed a confession in a police officer’s notepad on the night of his arrest, but later went on to deny the charges.

The victim found the camera concealed at her Weymouth home in December 2012.

Judge Johnson said: “It was after she took a shower that she noticed a large box of Pearl White toothpaste, she said.

“She thought to herself, ‘I didn’t buy that – maybe mum bought it for me’. She said there was a tiny hole in it, and as she looked closer, she saw a camera lens.”

Looking inside the box, the victim found an iPhone she identified as belonging to Yarnold propped up on tissue paper.

The judge said: “She saw it was flashing red and had a numeral five on it.”

When police arrived at the defendant’s address to arrest him, he allegedly said: “Can I just be honest?

“I did film her. I did record her and I did delete the recording from my phone. I just wanted to get rid of it. I felt sick. I didn’t know you guys were coming.”

Investigations made of his laptop revealed the defendant had searched for terms including ‘I hid a camera in a girl’s bedroom’, ‘hidden camera in box’, ‘hidden camera in box in shower’ and ‘teen voyeur’.

The court also heard that Yarnold had made a number of “prank” films, including one which appeared to show him performing a sex act upon himself in a car.

There were also images of women’s bottoms taken in shops.

The judge said: “He says he is entitled to take these photographs, as there are CCTV cameras in the store so they are being videoed anyway, and these actions are not illegal.”

Yarnold will return to the court on July 28 to be sentenced and was released on conditional bail.